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Courting the Squall
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Courting the Squall Image
Metascore
75

Generally favorable reviews - based on 13 Critic Reviews What's this?

User Score
8.0

Generally favorable reviews- based on 8 Ratings

  • Summary: The debut full-length release for the Elbow frontman was backed by I Am Kloot's Pete Jobson, The Whip's Nathan Sudders, Ben Christophers, and Alex Reeves.
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Courting the Squall
In the hills it's an overcoat colder Come by, see me If big things, life things, are waves at your door Come by, see me Come grab a sleep on my... See the rest of the song lyrics
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Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 8 out of 13
  2. Mixed: 5 out of 13
  3. Negative: 0 out of 13
  1. The Telegraph (UK)
    Nov 13, 2015
    80
    The result is more urgent, less reassuringly structured than your typical Elbow record.
  2. The Line of Best Fit
    Oct 29, 2015
    80
    Courting the Squall is a collection of songs from a musician unencumbered by expectation or industry pressure, just Guy Garvey recording a bunch of tunes with his friends and seeing where his muse leads them. That free spirit gives his poignant solo material a fresh buoyancy that still sounds intimate, due to his estimable songwriting gifts and the band’s ability to not overthink these compositions and just let the musical magic happen naturally.
  3. Q Magazine
    Oct 27, 2015
    80
    Liberated from Elbow's obligation to write at least a few songs big enough for arena stages and radio playlists, Garvey revels in lovingly crafted intimacy. [Dec 2015, p.102]
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  4. The Independent (UK)
    Nov 6, 2015
    80
    As you’d expect from Elbow’s frontman, the songs on this debut solo album rarely stray too far from the sleeve on which Guy Garvey wears his heart.
  5. musicOMH.com
    Nov 2, 2015
    70
    As down-to-earth and likeable as its creator, this is an enjoyable collection that mostly avoids the pitfalls of solo albums by members of successful bands that are still very much a going concern.
  6. New Musical Express (NME)
    Oct 27, 2015
    60
    Guy Garvey’s solo debut follows the classic pattern--he’s off to play trad-based songs that “don’t fit the Elbow template” with his mates from I Am Kloot (bassist Pete Jobson) and The Whip (guitarist Nathan Sudders), don’t wait up. But as it reels out the old lines it proves quite the charmer.
  7. PopMatters
    Nov 5, 2015
    60
    Courting the Squall is a solid first solo outing for this music veteran, one that reveals an important truth: no matter how much experience you have making music, if you take the risk on something new, you’re going to find that there’s plenty still to learn, and even more to improve on.

See all 13 Critic Reviews

User Reviews

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Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1 out of 1
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 1
  3. Negative: 0 out of 1
  1. boweratbat
    Jan 29, 2016
    9
    Guy Garvey's first solo album, Courting the Squall, pares down the grandeur of Elbow's recent efforts. Though the spectacle of songs such asGuy Garvey's first solo album, Courting the Squall, pares down the grandeur of Elbow's recent efforts. Though the spectacle of songs such as "One Day Like This" and "The Birds" is curbed, the humanity is retained. The new tunes affect the listener to slowly sway or toe-tap, rather than fist-pump amid a gradually blooming crescendo. Garvey's chief lyrical talent is crafting seemingly mundane situations into melodic earworms that can't be extracted. Lines like "I'll build us a house out of wrestlerock shale," and "In the hills it's an overcoat colder," endure; the wordsmith imputes gravity into the intrinsically dull. Garvey is an elite lyricist, but the world-at-large—ok, Americas—haven't realized this. Albeit selfish, I hope they don't. Listening to Courting the Squall feels like being privy to a secret that is too rich to share.… Expand

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